Kino Vision Number 9
by EllieV
Summary: The kino rewinds to the beginning


_Don't own SGU; don't want to__  
__Like me, the kino is on repeats_

**Kino Vision Number 9****  
****By EllieV**

The kino rewound to the beginning. Eli threw it up in the air and sent it out exploring. It didn't know these people; they weren't the ones who created it but Eli cottoned on quickly. The kino floated around the corridors. Eli introduced it to Lt Scott—initially impressed but soon impatient. The kino, unused to being active, obediently followed Eli around as he worked out how to use the remote. The control interface room was occupied for the first time since the kino's creators had initialized Destiny and set it on autopilot.

The man looked worried and tired but as he spotted the kino his face became curious.

"What's that?" he asked. His voice was different: soft, the accent rolling fluidly.

Eli said, "Flying camera ball. I'm calling it a kino."

The kino could tell that the man got the name immediately, although Scott burst in with, "Don't ask."

The kino didn't need Eli to punch in instructions for it to move closer. The man said, thoroughly captivated, "Why, it's marvelous."

As Eli said, "It comes with a remote. I thought we could use it to look around," Scott said, "What do you have?"

The man's face returned to tired and worried.

"Ah, well, it's not so good, really," he said. "These processing nodes are scrubbers responsible for cleaning CO2 from the air here, here and here." He pointed to images on the screen as the kino focused on him. "It's indicating malfunction; others are failing."

The kino knew all that but what it realized was that this man was different to Scott, different to clever Eli, different to the frightened people it had spotted so far throughout Destiny.

He wasn't scared.

Worried, yes, but not scared.

He knew what he was talking about. He knew the systems. He knew Destiny.

If the kino had a heart, it would have lost it there and then.

Everyone seemed to call him Rush. He responded to it but the kino got from the tall, blond woman that he was a doctor. Not a medical doctor, a scientist. It wasn't _Dr Rush_; it was simply _Rush_. The kino hovered as they talked about the air filters, Scott demanding that Rush dial the gate back to Earth. Did they not know how far away they were? Destiny didn't have enough power to dial back to Earth. It hadn't had that much power for a long time.

Dr Rush knew.

Scott's voice was tiny and pleading. "Please," he said.

Rush was faintly disbelieving, as if trying to get them back home didn't have to be said out loud.

"What makes you think I won't try?" he asked gently.

The kino fast-forwarded to what it really wanted to see.

Eli spoke directly to the kino. "My head is pounding, heartbeat has accelerated. It's getting harder and harder to breathe ... as our very lives are being vented out into space."

He insisted their situation had to be documented in case someone found the footage. There's no one out here, the kino said silently. It got the impression that Eli was new to all this. Even Chloe, the girl in pink, who seemed to be important for reasons unknown to the kino, appeared to be more aware of what was going on. They discussed who would close the shuttle door. Dr Rush sounded practical and blunt. The kino noted sorrowfully that Rush's pragmatism got him into far more trouble than he deserved.

Johansen made a list of those injured and they argued about asking people to sacrifice themselves.

Scott said, "A lot of people on this ship already want kill you_."_

And Rush replied impatiently, "I don't care."

And he clearly didn't.

But the kino, having watched the footage over and over previously, wasn't interested in Scott. It focused on Lt Johansen, standing between Rush and Chloe Armstrong, her eyes to the floor. The kino had wondered if she had been asked to mark down those injured or if she had done it herself. The kino had filmed what she said later to Young, that no one ought to do it, that she was uncomfortable with asking someone to be a sacrifice but still, it wondered.

As Scott said, "A lot of people on this ship already want kill you," Johansen's head came up, staring at Scott for seeming to suggest that Dr Rush be the one to close the door.

The kino paused on her face, wide-eyed and stricken.

She'd made the list herself.

_FINIS_


End file.
